If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Congrats ricciardo. Hamilton would have won the race if he had pitted. They blew it. Verstappen is really problematic. Kimi did well to recover from a shafted strategy. Hulkenberg continues to impress. As is alonso.

congrats to Danny! Driver of the day albeit helped by SC but his pass on Hamilton made the difference. Special mention to Max for being spoiler of the race. Great for neutral fans but not great for Vettel. Ham should but Max a beer

I'm done with the retards at mercedes. How they blow an easy call to pit him is beyond comprehension. As soin as the sc came out i immediately said pit Hamilton. They have all the info and cant make a goddamn simple decision.

Sky guys say Ham was already past the pit entry but still it's been pretty common for MErcs to oversleep such opportunities. What a bunch of wooden heads they are.

Im not sure about that. In fact im pretty certain he wasn't past the pits. As both rbr cars were fairly close behind him and the incident was at turn 17.

Yup I knew I was right. At the time of the Safety Car Verstappen was ahead of Hamilton and Ricciardo about 4 seconds behind.
They were all approaching turn 17 (the end of the long back straight) whne the SC came out.
Both Red Bulls went into the pits. the idiots and mercedes probably tried to call some committee meeting and were waiting to hear back from England and simply botched the call.
It is just plain dumb. Hamilton would have finished no lower than p2 and probably won the race if he had pitted. It might have been too late for Bottas and Vettel but not for Hamilton. I bet you toto wolff was behind this. I can probably see him overriding Hamilton's engineer to pit him, because bottas didn't and he wants to "keep things totally equal" even if it means loosing a race win or making in roads towards vettel. Idiots the lot of them.

I'm not really happy at how the race turned out as I feel that Bottas was robbed of a win here. I don't like the guy, nor do I rate him highly, but Red Bull just lacked their way into a win here today. I'd need to rewatch that part of the race, but I'm fairly certain that Merc and Ferrari had little time to react when the SC came out as they were almost at the pit entry, whereas Red Bull had a couple more seconds which they put to good use. Sometimes with the SC it's all down to which part of the track you're in...

As for the other Red Bull driver... damn. I've always found him rather overrated and believed that Ricciardo was the superior race driver. He obviously needs to grow up. See how Alonso has been making a large number of overtakes over the last couple of seasons and never seems to cause accidents or get penalties? That's what Max is missing if he wants to become a WDC, and that's where Ricciardo will be beating him every time.

Also a pretty dismal showing from Toro Rosso-Honda and from Gasly, who provoked a completely unnecessary accident. Then, of course, he's a rookie, so you can kind of expect these things from him.

And if something struck me about the top two teams today, it was mostly the fact that Ferrari completely screwed with Räikkönen's strategy only to get Vettel a chance to pass Bottas, which he didn't capitalize on anyway. They kept him out for an unnecessarily long amount of time today and you can't help but think that he might have even won the race had Ferrari pitted him at a sensible time.

Lastly, I'm a bit disappointed in Sainz. He's generally been very close to Hülkenberg in pace, but still a bit behind and that little difference usually translates into a couple of positions. I really hope he can raise his game and trump his teammate more often than not or he'll blow his credentials as a potential WDC. He was a match for Verstappen as a Toro Rosso driver and these three races have been slightly below expectations for him.

I'm not really happy at how the race turned out as I feel that Bottas was robbed of a win here. I don't like the guy, nor do I rate him highly, but Red Bull just lacked their way into a win here today. I'd need to rewatch that part of the race, but I'm fairly certain that Merc and Ferrari had little time to react when the SC came out as they were almost at the pit entry, whereas Red Bull had a couple more seconds which they put to good use. Sometimes with the SC it's all down to which part of the track you're in...

I rewatched that part and followed it on the app as well:
At the time of the Safety Car Verstappen was ahead of Hamilton and Ricciardo about 4 seconds behind.
They were all approaching turn 17 (the end of the long back straight) when the SC came out.
Both Red Bulls went into the pits. Hamilton didn't and kimi probably had no need too.
It was too late for bottas and vettel.
Mercedes just botched the call. and as usual will have some long debrief and come out wuith a hollow explanation 2 days from now, with some borken radio or telemetry excuse.

Originally Posted by N4D13

And if something struck me about the top two teams today, it was mostly the fact that Ferrari completely screwed with Räikkönen's strategy only to get Vettel a chance to pass Bottas, which he didn't capitalize on anyway. They kept him out for an unnecessarily long amount of time today and you can't help but think that he might have even won the race had Ferrari pitted him at a sensible time.

I completely agree, And i was happy that Kimi got some redemption by ending up on the podium. They just used him today and it was pretty sad to see it unfold in such an embarrassing manner.

Originally Posted by N4D13

As for the other Red Bull driver... damn. I've always found him rather overrated and believed that Ricciardo was the superior race driver. He obviously needs to grow up. See how Alonso has been making a large number of overtakes over the last couple of seasons and never seems to cause accidents or get penalties? That's what Max is missing if he wants to become a WDC, and that's where Ricciardo will be beating him every time.

Yes, totally agree with this assessment. RBR were on for an easy 1-2 finish but max was impatient and arrogant in his approach. the 10 second penalty was not nearly enough, given the fact that he was probably going to pull out that gap on vettel anyway, the 2nd victim of his foolishness.

Originally Posted by N4D13

Lastly, I'm a bit disappointed in Sainz. He's generally been very close to Hülkenberg in pace, but still a bit behind and that little difference usually translates into a couple of positions. I really hope he can raise his game and trump his teammate more often than not or he'll blow his credentials as a potential WDC. He was a match for Verstappen as a Toro Rosso driver and these three races have been slightly below expectations for him.

When you look at the overtake of Ricciado over Bottas, you have to say Verstapenn was unlucky with the collision with Vettel. I certainly don't think it was inexperience or lack of caution. I expect any racer to stick their nose into a gap like the one that Vettel opened to Verstapenn.